5th Baltic Student Conference: Bridges in the Baltics Stockholm University, 6th – 7th October 2017 Abstracts Justina Petrulionytė-Sabonienė PhD Student (Philology) Vytautas Magnus University City in Literature: Kaunas Representations in Lithuanian Prose (1993–2014) This paper is a part of my doctoral dissertation which focusses on city in literature. Present case study discusses representations of the city Kaunas in seven (postmodern and mainstream) novels of Lithuanian authors where this city is a significant element of depicted narrative world: Kunčinas Toula (1993), Everyday to the War (2002), Zingeris Round the Fountain, or a Little Paris (1998), Playing Dou (2002), Beresnevičius Parousia (2005), Fomina Yesterday we were on the island (2011) and Kunčius Dervish from Kaunas (2014). The choise of the object is based on few reasons: 1) the unique „biography“ of Kaunas city (temporary capital of Lithuania during interwar, though nowadays sometimes called a small, second city, province); 2) novel could be seen as a „seismograph of urban experience“ (Alter 2005). The analysis of links between depicted city world and characters as well as the comparison of different experiences, voices and perspectives to the city (male and female, Lithuanian and Jewish, Kaunas and not Kaunas origins authors and characters etc.) helps to decode the miscellaneous and „mysterious discourse“ of a city (Calvino 1972) and to expose the effects of urban images in the world where a city has become inseparable from our personal, social and national life (Lehan 1998, Donald 2011, Keunen 2013). Yan Lu PhD Student (Educational Management) University of Latvia The Teaching of the Baltic Languages in China In 1954, China first started the Polish Language Program in Beijing Foreign Studies University(BFSU). In the following 60 years, programs of the other Baltic languages were also started successively. In 2011, the lauching of Latvian language course in BFSU signified the overallteaching of the Baltic languages in China. Most of the Baltic languages belong to the less-commonly-taught languages all over the world.Teaching materials and resources were relatively limited. However, with the great efforts of several generations of the teachers, the teaching of the Baltic languages has attained great results.Graduates have become “bridge”between China and Baltic countries, deepening the understanding and cooperation in the international communication. The teaching of the Baltic languges in China traditionally focused on the language proficiency. However, with the appearanceof new situations, the restriction to listening, reading, speaking and translatingdoes not situable to the new requirements. Thus, the teaching of the Baltic languages in China now is experiencing reforms in curricula, organizational structure and so on. Evelina Zilgalve PhD Student (Linguistics) University of Latvia From conjunction to discourse particle: the case of Latvian Many discourse particles are grammatical homonyms with words from other parts of speech like adverbs, e.g. the adverb tad can be used as an adverb of time: Tad mēs gājām prom. Then we 1pl-go-pst away ‘Then we went away’ And it can also be used as discourse particle: Ko tad tu no manis gribi? What-acc pctl you from I-gen 2sg-want-prs ‘What do you want from me, then?’ Similarly, a number of discourse particles are homonyms with conjunctions, e.g. discourse particle arī can be used both as an additive particle or a conjunction. The meaning of additive particle arī is close to the meaning of another discourse particle pat ‘even’: Pie manis atnāca visa ģimene, arī brālis. At I-gen 3pl-come-pst whole family-sg-nom, also brother-sg-nom ‘The whole family came to my place, also (my) brother.’ The meaning of conjunction arī, however, is close to meaning of other conjunction un ‘and’: Korī dzied māsa, arī brālis. Choir-loc 3sg-sing-prs, also brother-sg-nom ‘(My) sister sings in the choir, also (my) brother.’ This report focuses on the meaning and usage that the homonymic conjunctions and discourse particles like arī, gan, taču, tikai etc. have in common. Monika Bertašiūtė BA Student (Philology, Pedagogy) Vilnius University The subject’s multifacetedness in Oscar Milosz’s poetry Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz was a poet who did not fit into the traditional cultural boundaries of Lithuania or any other nationality. He described himself as a world citizen since he was both Polish-Lithuanian and French or a Lithuanian writing in French. Although there may be some critique toward his rambling writing style, the author creates a piquant, mystical, exotic and easy-flowing aristocratic language, representing a unique/renewed way of existential being. It is obvious, that the dominant alterations of lyrical subject’s identification and means of expression at the literary space/time may be the key to understanding Milosz’s poetry as a natural being, rather than a linguistic construct. Furthermore, at an early point in his life as a creator Milosz had met Oscar Wilde at the American bar, where they had discussed the essence of a "pure poetry". This may or may not be one of the reasons why Oscar Milosz's poetry is inspired to live by itself only in emotional, intuitive level and be comprehended without bright concepts of any nationality. From this point of view Oscar Milosz's and Oscar Wilde's some way narcissistic lyrical worldview correlate deeply. In fact, Lithuanian literary critic Vytautas Kubilius says that Oscar Wilde was fascinated by the esthetics of Milosz's poetry, so that lyrical rambling in some ways may be perfect expressions for the reader to understand subjects or his/her inner prince voice. Žanna Razinkova PhD Student (English Language & Culture) University of Tartu Discursive Definition of National Identity: A Study of Estonian and Canadian Civil Rights Documents and University Students' Perceptions The increase in intercultural interaction, cross-border economic, social and technological exchange that globalisation has brought along has had enormous impact on the perception of one’s national identity. To explain the changing condition of national identity the paper resorts to the fundamental laws of the countries and the perceptions of university students. The paper studies how national identity is formulated in the fundamental laws of the countries studied: Constitutions and civil rights documents. The work compares the discursive definitions of national identity to find out to what extent different countries rely on ethnic and/or political definitions of national identity. The research introduces the ‘subjective’ aspects of the definition of national identity and on the basis of the qualitative interviews determines informants’ interpretations. The study examines whether there is a disparity between the formulations of national identity in the fundamental documents of the countries and Estonian (University of Tartu) and Canadian (University of Toronto) university students' interpretations. Both corpora, the documents and the students' attitudes, are analysed on the basis of the Discourse Historical Approach developed by Martin Reisigl and Ruth Wodak (2001 and 2009) that intends to incorporate knowledge about the history of the discursive event as well as socio-political field. Miķelis Zeibārts MA Student (Estonian and Finno-Ugric Ling.) University of Tartu Estonian and Latvian verb government comparison Estonians and Latvians, who are interested in studying each other’s language, usually encounter several problems during language acquisition. One of these problems is verb governance. The paper presents an abridged version of my Master thesis of the same name, whose main aim was to study and compare analogous, similar and different verb governments in Estonian and Latvian, and explain how different verb governments are illustrated. To achieve this goal Estonian verbs with Latvian translations from the Latvian Language Agency’s Estonian-Latvian dictionary (2015) are collected. After that the verbs are supplemented with relevant grammatical information from various sources, classified into several categories and analyzed on basis of analogy, similarity and difference. Verbs with no grammatical information are classified in other categories. The paper presents the research process used in the thesis, the basic principles of categorization as well as the results of the research, which includes 2146 Estonian-Latvian verb pairs. The paper presents the principles of Estonian and Latvian noun cases and their comparison to provide better understanding of the differences of verb governments. Several Estonian and Latvian examples showcasing verb government usage are included. Keywords: Estonian, Latvian, verb, verb government, language contacts Inga Mastina MA Student (Writing Studies) Liepaja University Realistic Fiction in Contemporary Latvian Children's Literature In today's world parents and educators do not doubt the importance of reading and its impact on personality development. More and more authors in Latvia write for children. However, there is an age group that has been and still is being avoided in Latvian contemporary literature – eight to eleven year old children. Latvian authors mostly write fairy tales, fantasy, rhymes, poems, adventures of various animals and creatures, teenage fiction, but there is a lack of realistic fiction for above mentioned group, about the topics including cultural references, these children could identify with. There have been some attempts to write for this age group, however, the books